A glass bottle production line comprising a bottle mold which has a plurality of mold cavities arranged in a predetermined order for forming bottles from glass parisons and for transferring the bottles to a conveyor in a predetermined sequence corresponding to the predetermined order of the mold cavities. The conveyor has a hot end portion and a cold end portion for receiving bottles from the bottle mold at an elevated temperature at the hot end portion and conveying the bottles to the cold end portion. A hot bottle inspector located at a fixed inspection station along the conveyor at the hot end portion non-touchingly inspects the bottles as the bottles are conveyed past the inspection station by the conveyor. A mold transfer signal and bottle detection signal are processed to determine the mold cavity used to produce the bottle detected at the inspector's station.
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1. A glass bottle production line comprising:
a) a bottle mold assembly; b) a conveyor having a hot end portion positioned proximate said bottle mold assembly and a cold end portion positioned remotely from said bottle mold assembly; c) a hot bottle inspector comprising a bottle imager located at a fixed inspection station along said conveyor at said hot end portion thereof and a pressurized housing disposed in enclosing relationship with said imager; d) a mold monitor assembly operatively associated with said bottle mold assembly; and e) a data processor operatively connected to said mold monitor assembly and said bottle imager.
8. A glass bottle production line comprising:
a) a bottle mold assembly; b) a conveyor having a hot end portion positioned proximate said bottle mold assembly and a cold end portion positioned remotely from said bottle mold assembly; and c) a hot bottle inspector comprising a bottle imager located at a fixed inspection station along said conveyor at said hot end portion thereof and a pressurized housing disposed in enclosing relationship with said imager; wherein, said pressurized housing defines a housing interior located within said pressurized housing and a housing exterior located outside of said pressurized housing; wherein, said housing interior contains an internal atmosphere; wherein, said housing exterior defines an external atmosphere; wherein, said internal atmosphere is at a higher pressure than said external atmosphere; and wherein, said imager is exposed to said internal atmosphere.
15. A glass bottle production line comprising:
a) a bottle mold assembly; b) a conveyor having a hot end portion positioned proximate said bottle mold assembly and a cold end portion positioned remotely from said bottle mold assembly; c) a hot bottle inspector comprising a bottle imager located at a fixed inspection station along said conveyor at said hot end portion thereof and a pressurized housing disposed in enclosing relationship with said imager; d) a mold monitor assembly operatively associated with said bottle mold assembly; and e) a data processor operatively connected to said mold monitor assembly and said bottle imager; said pressurized housing defines a housing interior located within said pressurized housing and a housing exterior located outside of said pressurized housing; said housing interior contains an internal atmosphere; said housing exterior defines an external atmosphere; said internal atmosphere is at a higher pressure than said external atmosphere; and said imager is exposed to said internal atmosphere.
2. The bottle production line of
said bottle mold assembly has a plurality of mold cavities arranged in a predetermined order; and said pressurized housing has a flow of clean air therethrough.
3. The bottle production line of
4. The bottle production line of
5. The bottle production line of
at least one air jet tube connected to a source of pressurized air; and wherein said at least one air jet tube is located adjacent said at least one transparent portion.
6. The bottle production line of
7. The bottle production line of
said pressurized housing defines a housing interior located within said pressurized housing and a housing exterior located outside of said pressurized housing; said housing interior contains an internal atmosphere; said housing exterior defines an external atmosphere; said internal atmosphere is at a higher pressure than said external atmosphere; and said imager is exposed to said internal atmosphere.
9. The bottle production line of
a) a mold monitor assembly operatively associated with said bottle mold assembly; and b) a data processor operatively-connected to said mold monitor assembly and said bottle imager.
10. The bottle production line of
said bottle mold assembly has a plurality of mold cavities arranged in a predetermined order; and said pressurized housing has a flow of clean air therethrough.
11. The bottle production line of
12. The bottle production line of
13. The bottle production line of
at least one air jet tube connected to a source of pressurized air; and wherein said at least one air jet tube is located adjacent said at least one transparent portion.
14. The bottle production line of
16. The bottle production line of
17. The bottle production line of
18. The bottle production line of
at least one air jet tube connected to a source of pressurized air; and wherein said at least one air jet tube is located adjacent said at least one transparent portion.
19. The bottle production line of
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This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/831,384 filed Apr. 1, 1997, now abandoned, and continuation of application Ser. No. number 08/898,535 filed Jul. 22, 1997, now abandoned. Application Ser. Nos. 08/831,384 and 08/898,535 are both continuations of application Ser. No. 08/418,007 filed Apr. 6, 1995, now abandoned, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/111,115 filed Aug. 24, 1993, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,702. All of the above-referenced patent applications are hereby specifically incorporated by reference for all that is disclosed therein.
The present invention relates generally to glass bottle production and, more particularly, to a glass bottle inspection apparatus adapted for use at the hot end of a glass bottle production line.
The manufacture of glass bottles begins with the preparation of raw materials. Sand and soda ash are measured in precise quantities, mixed together and conveyed to storage silos located over large melting furnaces. The mixed materials are continuously metered into the furnaces to replace molten glass which is dispensed from the furnaces after melting.
The furnaces are heated by a combination of natural gas and electricity and are operated at a temperature of over 2500 degrees Fahrenheit. The melted mixture of raw materials forms molten glass which flows from the furnaces through refractory channels, also known as forehearths, to a position over bottle forming machines.
A bottle forming machine known in the industry as an "I.S. machine" draws the glass into individual gobs and drops each gob into a blank mold. The blank mold forms a bottle preform, also referred to as a parison. The preform is transferred to a blow mold where it is blown by compressed air into a bottle. Each blow mold cavity typically contains indicia provided on a bottom wall thereof which embosses each bottle with code characters indicating the mold cavity in which it was formed.
The molds are lubricated by oil born carbon. The hot mold vaporizes the oil and some of the carbon immediately upon contact leaving most of the carbon deposited upon the mold. Thus, the area around the mold is an extremely dirty environment filled with oil and carbon vapors and condensate.
An I.S. machine typically has between six and sixteen individual sections, with each section having from one to four blow mold cavities. Each section may be capable of manufacturing one to four bottles at time. A typical eight section, triple gob, I.S. machine used in the production of beer bottles may produce 270 beer bottles per minute.
After the bottles have been blown, they are transferred from the respective blow mold cavities onto a moving conveyor belt. The bottles are positioned on the moving conveyor belt in a single line in a sequence corresponding to the sequence of the blow mold cavities in which the bottles were formed. The finished bottles transferred onto the conveyor from the blow mold are still red hot (approximately 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit). These hot bottles are conveyed by the conveyor belt through a hot end coating hood where they are chemically treated with a stannous chloride compound for strengthening. Vapors from the hot end coding hood also contribute significantly to the harsh environment found at the "hot end" of the bottle production line.
After passing through the hot end coating hood, the hot bottles are conveyed through an annealing oven or lehr where they are reheated and then cooled in a controlled manner to eliminate stresses in the glass. This annealing process typically takes from 20 to 30 minutes. The annealing process is the last process which takes place at the hot end of the production line. The portion of the production line downstream from the annealing oven is referred to as the "cold end" of the production line. In contrast to the hot end, the cold end is neither hot nor dirty. At the cold end of the production line, bottles are conveyed through a series of inspection devices. Typical prior art inspection devices include a squeezer which physically squeezes each bottle to check its sidewall strength. Another prior art cold end inspection device is referred to in the industry as a total inspection machine or T.I.M. which is sold by Emhart Glass having a business address of 123 Day Hill Road, Windsor, Conn. 06095. The total inspection machine physically engages each bottle and checks the size of the bottle neck opening and the thickness of the bottle sidewall and reads the code on the bottle bottom wall to determine the mold of origin. On a statistical sampling basis, The T.I.M. also sends bottles off line to be tested for burst strength, weighing, and measuring. Reports generated from the T.I.M. correlate bottle defects with the mold of origin. Another typical prior art inspection device is known as a "super scanner" sold by Inex, 13327 U.S. 19 North, Clearwater, Fla. 34624. The super scanner operates on each bottle on line. It initially scans a bottle, then engages and rotates the bottle approximately 90 degrees and scans it again. The super scanner uses image analysis to perform certain dimensional parameter checks of the bottle.
At both the T.I.M. and the super scanner inspection stations, defective bottles may be rejected by a cold end rejection device. After passing through the cold end inspection stations, bottles are transferred to a case packer machine, placed into a cardboard carton and conveyed to a palletizer machine for being placed in pallets. Loaded pallets are then shipped to a filling facility, such as a brewery.
A problem experienced with traditional glass bottle manufacturing operations as described above results from the fact that the bottle inspection stations are located at the cold end of the bottle production line. If a particular blow mold cavity begins producing defective bottles, e.g. as a result of a foreign object in the mold, the first defective bottle produced will not be detected until 30 to 40 minutes after its formation in the blow mold. As a result of this detection delay, the defective mold cavity will have continued to produce hundreds of defective bottles during the period between the first defective production and discovery of the first defective bottle. Furthermore, unless the defect is a defect of the type discovered by the T.I.M. machine which also identifies each bottle with a blow mold, the mold causing the problem will not be immediately apparent to the operator. As a result, the production operation must be shut down and each of the mold cavities of the I.S. machine must be inspected to detect the origin of the problem. Such shut down and inspection may be very time consuming and results in significant production loss in addition to the scrap produced by the defective mold cavity.
Prior to the present invention, it has been considered unworkable to place an inspection machine at the hot end of the bottle production line for a number of reasons: (1) as a result of the elevated temperature of the bottles at the hot end of the line, any engagement of the bottles by an inspection machine as is conventional with cold end inspectors would result in deformation of the bottle surface producing an ascetically unacceptable bottle; (2) the heat of the bottles at the hot end causes the bottles to glow and would thus make reading of mold origin indicating characters on the base of the bottle extremely difficult or impossible; (3) the contaminants in the atmosphere at the hot end of the line would coat the surface of any optical device used to image the bottles rendering imaging difficult or impossible; (4) the extreme heat and contamination at the hot end of the line would damage any electronics used on inspection devices positioned at the hot end.
The present invention is directed to a glass bottle production line which includes a bottle inspection apparatus located at the hot end of the line, contrary to the conventional wisdom in the art. The hot bottle inspection apparatus relies on non-touching inspection techniques and thus, does not damage the surface of the hot bottles. The inspection apparatus uses imaging assemblies which are shielded from the harsh environment at the hot end of the production line by a specially adapted housing assembly. Optical and electronic components positioned within the housing are cooled by a filtered cooling airflow provided within the housing. Clear panels in the housing wall enable imaging devices within the housing to image passing bottles without exposing the optics thereof to the harsh environment of the hot end. Fluid jets provided adjacent to these clear panels prevent contaminants from building up on the surface of the clear panels. The imaging data signals generated by the imaging devices are also used as detection signals to determine when a bottle has entered an inspection position on the conveyor. Monitoring signals from the I.S. machine and the bottle conveyor are processed along with the bottle detection signal by data processing apparatus to determine the mold of origin of each bottle which is being imaged, thus obviating the need to read indicia on the surface of a glowing bottle. Image data from each bottle is analyzed to determine whether or not the bottle is defective. A signal may be sent to a remote computer accessible to the operator. The remote computer has a display which indicates the mold of origin of each defective bottle. This information may also be stored by the computer for further analysis and/or display. As a result of this information which becomes available to the operator almost immediately after the production of a defective bottle, the operator may immediately identify the problem mold cavity and take corrective action. For example, the operator may simply disable the portion of the I.S. machine associated with production of defective bottles and correct the problem or, in the alternative, may terminate operation of the production line and immediately correct the problem with the identified mold cavity. In either case, production of scrap associated with the problem mold cavity is virtually eliminated and production line downtime is significantly reduced.
An illustrative and presently preferred embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawing in which:
In general, as shown by
A blow mold assembly 30 comprises a plurality of mold cavity portions 32, 34, 36, etc. The blow mold assembly 30 may comprise a portion of a conventional I.S. machine. The blow mold assembly 30 is positioned at an upstream end 38 of conveyor 12. A mold monitor assembly 42 (sometimes referred to herein as a "mold sensing means") generates a mold transfer signal 44 (sometimes referred to herein as a "mold sensing signal" or a "mold signal") each time the blow mold 30 transfers bottles onto conveyor 12. Bottles 52, 54, 56, etc. are produced by mold cavity portions 32, 34, 36, etc. and are transferred to conveyor 12 in single file in a sequence corresponding to the sequence of their respective blow mold cavities of origin. The bottles 52, 54, 56 may be formed with indicia thereon indicative of the blow mold cavity of origin. The bottles 52, 54, 56, etc. are transferred onto the conveyor 12 at an elevated temperature which may be approximately 1000 degrees Fahrenheit such that the bottles are glowing.
A hot coating hood 62 is positioned at a station along the conveyor 12 a short distance downstream, e.g. 10 feet, from the blow mold 30.
A hot bottle inspection apparatus, also referred to herein as a hot bottle inspector 64, is positioned at a fixed station along the conveyor which may be a short distance, e.g. two feet, downstream from the hot coating hood 62. The hot bottle inspector 64 may thus be located in an extremely hot and dirty environment at the hot end 80 of the production line. A remote computer 66 removed from the harsh environment at the hot end of the production line is operably connected to the hot bottle inspector 64 and is-accessible to a production line operator. A rejection device 68 may be positioned immediately downstream from the hot bottle inspector 64 and is operable to remove bottles from the conveyor in response to commands from the hot bottle inspector 64.
An annealing oven 70 of a conventional type may be positioned downstream of the rejection device 68 and defines, at its downstream end portion 72, the terminal end portion of the "hot end" 80 of the bottle production line 10. In a typical production line used for producing glass beer bottles, the period of time elapsing from the transfer of a bottle onto the conveyor 12 by the blow mold 30 to the exit of that bottle from the downstream end 72 of annealing oven 70 may be thirty minutes.
The portion of the production line 10 located downstream of the annealing.oven exit 72 constitutes the "cold end" 82 of the production line. The cold end of the production line may comprise conventional cold end inspection devices 84, 86, 88 such as a squeezer, a T.I.M. machine, and a super inspector machine such as previously described in the "Background of the Invention" section of this application. The first of these cold end inspectors 84 may be positioned, e.g. 100 feet, downstream from the exit 72 of annealing oven 70. A conventional packing assembly 92, such as described above, may be provided downstream from the cold end inspection devices 84, 86, 88.
As best illustrated by
Second box portion 116 may comprise a front wall 140, a first side wall 142, a rear wall 144, a second side wall 146, a bottom wall 148, and a top wall 149 as illustrated in
As best illustrated in
As best shown by
An air inlet orifice (not shown) is positioned in the top wall 149 of the second box portion 116 to enable cool filtered air from the filtered air supply assembly 126 to enter the first box portion. An air discharge orifice 186,
A pressurized air conduit 188 is operably connected to the filtered air supply 126 and provides pressurized air to air jet tubes 192, 194, 196, 198 associated with transparent panels 152, 154, 156, 158. Air jets produced by these tubes prevent the build-up of contamination on the transparent panels in the harsh environment in which the inspection apparatus is located. Similar air jet tubes are associated with the transparent panels 162, 164, 166, 168 of the second box portion 116 and are supplied with pressurized air from the filtered air supply unit 126. In an alternative embodiment (not shown), a transparent glass cover panel is positioned over each transparent panel 152, 154, 156, 158 via quick release mechanisms that allow the cover panels to be quickly removed, cleaned and reinstalled.
Fluorescent bulbs 210, 212, 214, 216 mounted on supports 218, etc. attached to the housing are positioned opposite each of the transparent panels 152, 154, 156, 158 of the first box portion 114. The fluorescent bulbs extend the full length of each of the transparent portions and provide light used to image bottles passing through the inspection apparatus. Collimating lenses, which may comprise conventional Fresnell lenses 222, 224, 226, 228 are mounted on supports 230, etc. within the second box portion of the housing, as illustrated in FIG. 3.
A first and second mirror 232, 234 are positioned adjacent transparent panels 162, 168 and are mounted on supports 236, etc. attached to the walls of housing second box portion 116. Image sensors 242, 244, 246, 248 are mounted in second box portion 116 as illustrated in FIG. 3. The image sensors may comprise Model RL0258G available from EG & G Reticon, 2260 Landmeier Road, Suite J, Elk Grove Village, Ill. 60007-2693. Each image sensor is connected by conventional cables 250 etc. to a central data processor 252 mounted within the second box portion 116. The central data processor 252 may have an input device 254, such as a key pad physically mounted thereon. In a preferred embodiment, the central data processor 252 may also receive programming input as well as send process data to a remote computer 66 to which it is connected by conventional cables 256. The central data processor 252 may also be connected to send commands to a conventional bottle rejection device 68 by conventional cables 258. In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the central data processor 252 is positioned within a separately sealed interior cavity 259 provided by interior wall 260 which separates it from the remainder of second box portion 116 of the housing. In this embodiment, wall 146 of the housing comprises a hinged door 262. The cavity 259 in which the central data processor 252 is located may have a separate inlet (not shown) connecting it with the filtered air supply 126 and may further comprise a separate air discharge outlet (not shown). The separate cavity enclosing the central data processor 252 thus receives a cooling filtered airflow therethrough. However, if the door 262 must be opened during operation in the harsh environment, contaminants which may enter the chamber in which the central data processor 252 is located will be prevented from entering the portion of the enclosure containing the various optical components. The center line of beams of light from the illumination sources which pass through a bottle and thence, through the collimating filters to the various imaging devices, are illustrated by dash lines in FIG. 3. The general operation of a collimating lens in passing only parallel rays of light is illustrated schematically in FIG. 5.
The general technique of imaging of bottles onto photoelectric devices such as CCD's (charge coupled devices) and the subsequent analysis of the data signal to measure various bottle parameters is well known in the art. In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the particular physical parameter of the bottle which is determined by the imaging/data analysis process is the diameter of the bottle at various predetermined positions along the central longitudinal axis LL of the bottle. In one preferred embodiment 16 such diameter measurements are made per imaging device per bottle. It will be seen from
The measured bottle parameters may be compared with predetermined values and any bottle having parameters exceeding a fixed tolerance from this value are determined by the system to be defective. In another embodiment, rather than using fixed tolerances, the bottles are allowed to vary from a predetermined value by a variable tolerance amount. The value of this variable tolerance at any particular time is dependent upon a standard deviation value which is calculated using normal statistical methods based upon measurement of the subject parameter taken from a pre-set number of immediately preceding bottles, e.g. 256 bottles.
The basic control components used in bottle inspection and the basic method of operation of those components are as illustrated in
The basic operations performed by the data processor 252 are as illustrated in FIG. 7. Based upon the mold monitor signal 44 and the conveyor monitor signal 18 which it receives, the data processor 252 continuously monitors the operating cycle of the mold and the displacement of bottles by the conveyor after each mold transfer of bottles to the conveyor. The data processor also continuously monitors the signals from image sensors 242, 244, 246, 248. It uses these image signals to detect the presence or absence of a bottle at the inspection station and, thus, the image sensors may be referred to herein as "bottle sensors" or "bottle detectors" and the signals produced by the image sensors may be referred to herein as "bottle sensing signals" or "bottle detection signals". It also analyzes the image signals to determine the values of certain pre-selected bottle parameters. In one embodiment, the parameters comprise a series of diameter measurements at predetermined positions along the bottle central longitudinal axis. The data processor compares these determined values of pre-selected bottle parameters to preset design values. If all of the determined values fall within a preset tolerance of the preset design values, then the bottle is determined to be acceptable. If any of the determined values fall outside of the preset tolerance for that value, then the bottle is determined to be defective. In addition to using a fixed tolerance value, variations in tolerance may be built in into the acceptability determination based upon a statistical sampling of previously inspected bottles to account for fluctuations due to slight differences in materials, operating conditions, etc. The mold and conveyor signals are analyzed to determine the mold cavity of origin of the bottle which is currently detected at the bottle inspection station. This information is displayed and stored along with the information from the bottle analysis so as to indicate the mold cavity of origin of each defective bottle and to further identify the parameter deviation which was the source of the rejection determination. This information may be displayed on a display screen (not shown) provided within the housing 110 and accessible to an operator through back panel 146 and/or may be provided on the display screen of remote computer 66. In response to each determination of a defective bottle, a rejection signal may be sent to actuate a rejection device 68 such as a conventional air jet rejection device which is operated at an appropriate time based upon conveyor speed to remove a defective bottle as it passes.
In the above described embodiment the determination of the cavity of origin of a bottle is based upon conveyor displacement occurring after a mold cavity transfer signal, i.e., since each bottle must travel a know conveyor distance after it is transferred to the conveyor by the blow mold, each mold cavity may be assigned a predetermined distance value measured in conveyor encoder pulses. Thus, by counting the number of conveyor encoder pulses occurring after the mold transfer signal and comparing this count to the predetermined distance values the particular mold cavity which produced the bottle currently at the inspector's station may be determined. Alternatively, the bottle/mold cavity determination could be a time-based system rather than a distance-based system. For example, in such a time-based system, at system start-up the number of clock pulses occurring between the first mold transfer signal and the first bottle detection could be stored as a time value to be associated with the first mold cavity. Clock pulse time values would also be stored for each succeeding bottle/mold cavity from the first mold transfer upon the detection of subsequent bottles. Thereafter, after each mold transfer signal, these stored time values, with appropriate tolerances, would be compared to current clock pulse counts to associate each bottle detected with its respective mold cavity. If the operating speed of the line were changed, these initially stored time values would be changed proportionately. For example, if at the initial start-up speed the first mold cavity time value were 10,000 clock pulses and if the line speed of the blow mold/conveyor system were subsequently doubled, then the first mold cavity time value would be adjusted by dividing the original time value by 2, i.e., it would be 5,000 clock pulses at this subsequent higher operating speed. Thus, in this embodiment, monitor assembly 16 may comprise a clock unit rather than a distance encoder. In a slight modification to the above described time-based system, the time between mold machine transfer pulses is divided into equal length intervals or "windows" based upon the number of mold cavities in the mold machine. The system then correlates bottles to mold cavities based upon the particular time window in which a bottle is sensed. The occurrence or each time window is determined by counting clock pulses after a mold transfer signal. Windows are shortened or lengthened in accordance with variations in line speed.
It is contemplated that the inventive concepts herein described may be variously otherwise embodied and it is intended that the appended claims be construed to include alternative embodiments of the invention except insofar as limited by the prior art.
Gulka, James Allen, Burns, John William, Erickson, Dennis Ray, McKeehan, Jack Devin
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Jan 05 2004 | Coors Brewing Company | COORS GLOBAL PROPERTIES, INC | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 014885 | /0809 |
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